[lbo-talk] Guardian: Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons

[Jim Devine]

B writes: >One of these brainiacs has a picture of himself and
some buddies shooting a rifle through a Qur'an in his
backyard, posted on his blog. He's merely offending
the religion, not anyone's ethnicity. I've wondered
myself about the clear line, if any, that demarcates
"race" from "religion" in such cultures where ethnic
identity is so tightly bound up with religious belief.<

in the secular-Jewish community I participate in, there's a strong
line drawn between religion (belief in the Torah, etc.) and ethnicity.
It's like being Italian without being Catholic. There's also a
difference between being an Arab (an ethnicity) and being a Moslem.
There are a lot of Arabs who are Jewish, Christian, Druse, or secular.

As for race, that's really not a good scientific category. It's more
of a sociological category than a biological one. That is, it's the
same as ethnicity. However, the word "racism" can still be apt. Racism
involves (1) believing that biologically-based "races" are valid
non-sociological categories; and (2) believing that some races are
better than others.

--
Jim Devine

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an
intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin